Journalists killed in greater number in 2007, CPJ reports

Dec 18, 2007, 19:49 GMT

New York - A total of 64 journalists were killed while carrying out their work this year, up from 56 last year, making 2007 the deadliest year for the international media in more than a decade, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday in a year-end report.

CPJ was also investigating 22 other deaths of journalists in 2007 to determine whether they were work related.

The highest number of media fatalities was in 1994, with 66 journalists killed, many of them in conflicts in Algeria, Bosnia and Rwanda, CPJ said.

A total of 31 journalists were killed in Iraq 2007, one less than in 2006, the report said.

'Most of the victims were targeted and murdered, such as Washington Post reporter Salih Saif Aldin, who died in Baghdad from a single gunshot wound to the head,' CPJ said in a statement. 'In all, 24 deaths in Iraq were murders and seven occurred in combat-related crossfire.'

The journalists killed in Iraq worked mostly for local media, but a few were employed by The New York Times, ABC News, Reuters, and The Associated Press.

CPJ said 124 journalists and 49 media workers have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion of that country in March 2003. More than one-third worked for international news organizations.

Somalia was the second deadliest country for the media in 2007, with seven journalist deaths.

The number of journalists killed in Africa rose from two in 2006 to 10 this year.

'In every region of the world, journalists who produced critical reporting or covered sensitive stories were silenced,' CPJ said, citing five journalists killed for their work in Pakistan and Sri Lanka this year.

Japanese photographer Kenji Nagai was deliberately gunned down by Myanmar troops during the crackdown on anti-government demonstrators in the capital Yangon. CPJ cited other deaths in Nepal, the occupied Palestinian territory, Haiti, Honduras and Russia.